Let’s jump right into the action like last night, which started off with a bang. Last night’s episode of ‘Person of Interest’ was a great set up to the season finale where it was said they will close out several storylines that have been going on the entire season.

The episode started off quick with Control doing Control like things. A woman is driving to work talking to her husband about wife things and suddenly she can’t stop her van. She crashes and Control quickly pulls up and takes the driver out of the car and puts in a body that’s similar to the woman they just kidnapped. Then Control blows up the car and speeds off leaving us wondering what the heck is going on with Control, kidnapping a middle-aged schoolteacher like that?

Then we switch to John and Fusco arriving to a murder scene and realize this episode happens very soon, probably a day or two, after the last episode in which John was shot. Fusco makes a comment about John not looking so great to which John responds with a little speech about how Fusco is a great cop.

I don’t like to be alarmist but there has been a lot of what I would describe as tying things up with John. Meaning, the last few episodes have had John express more than he’s ever expressed to his partners and to everybody in general. They’re been a lot of talk about not risking his life, that they couldn’t do this without him, and frankly that concerns me. Now of course that may be how the writers intended this to work. They may be hoping that people are concerned that John is going to die. I honestly think next week we’re going to be left wondering if John lives or not because the finale does end with a cliffhanger, according to the writers. If I get proven wrong, I’ll be happy, but technically we’ve cliff hanged on almost all the other major characters so John is due to be our speculation for the hiatus.

But enough about that, back to the Brotherhood who has had yet another man killed without the Machine knowing. John and Harold speculate as to why Elias can order kills without the Machine knowing and Harold states it could be one of two options: That Samaritan has found the Machine (which would be unlikely seeing as it’s still communicating with them) or that Elias has figured out a way to communicate without the Machine seeing it.

The Machine finally spits out two numbers for the team and it just happens to be Elias and Dominic. Through a little investigation, Harold finds out that Elias has purchased a bank in the city that used to use an old tube system in order to communicate within the city, which is probably how he’s able to communicate without being caught. So John and Fusco are sent off to see what Elias is up to and protect him.

Suddenly there is a call to Shaw’s cell phone and just a small cry for help from Shaw that Root hears. Of course this puts Root into save Shaw mode without any care for the rather large possibility that it’s a trap. Since Root is just being reckless about this whole thing, Harold decides to tag along.

As we know, Root has had very limited conversation with The Machine lately because it’s hiding so she decides she’s done with the lack of communication and plays “chicken” with the Machine. Of course the Machine knows full well Root is a bit insane so doesn’t test her and gives in and starts telling her everything she wants to know.

Back to Fusco and John, they’re coming to talk to Elias who once again warns them that they really should just let things be. Of course, before Elias can get them to leave Dominic shows up. Knowing Elias, I figured this was a set up and really just proved how much of an idiot Dominic is in the end. If it’s too easy, it’s probably too good to be true. But Dominic thinks he has some sort of trick up his sleeve when he reveals that Harper is working with him. She apparently will be able to tell Dominic if Fusco or John are lying – don’t ask me how because it makes no sense.

On a side note, at this time John’s gunshot wound has started to bleed again and Link made some comment about being shot and John came back with a comment about the other guy being dead.

So back at the Asylum, Harold and Root hack into the system to gain some information on the facility which obviously is more than it seems – isn’t that how it always is? They decide to break in by Root pretending to be a doctor and Harold a crazy bum. Luckily he doesn’t have to pretend much in order to convince people he’s crazy. So he just goes on about all that is really happening and the doctor thinks he’s insane. On a side note, the doctor that Root is talking with is Carrie Preston’s brother. If you’re asking who Carrie Preston is, you need to really watch this show better because you’re not doing your job as a fan. She plays Grace, Harold’s fiancé, and in real life is Michael Emerson’s wife.

While in the Asylum, Harold and Root discover that this building is actually where Samaritan has decided to base its operations and now things are really serious and Harold needs to leave. Of course Root is still going to save Shaw. She’s not going anywhere.

Dominic is talking with Elias about how he’s going to take over and about how Elias killed Anthony and what not, blah, blah, and blah. I guess through this whole thing it just proved that Elias is way smarter than Dominic. Dominic asks Elias what it’s like to kill a friend, and Elias makes a comment that Dominic should be careful what he wishes for.

Back with John and Fusco though, Dominic is grilling them about who they work for (which he’s been told is Harold by Harper). He asks a few things that Harper does know but apparently didn’t tell them, and this reveals to us that she may not in fact be helping Dominic, perhaps she’s there to help John and Fusco.

Soon Dominic finds out there is a mole within his team and this is where Harper reveals that Thornhill (The Machine) has paid her more money to protect them, so that’s what she’s going to do. She told this to Fusco and I’m not sure that Fusco knows who Thornhill is, so he may still be in the dark about her helping, since he may have been a bit confused. I may be wrong, though, but I don’t think they’ve mentioned Thornhill to Fusco, especially since he doesn’t technically know about the Machine.

Back at the Asylum, Root goes in guns blazing to save Shaw but she’s too late. Martine and Root have a mini battle but in a more realistic move by the writers, Root doesn’t win and is captured. Greer comes in and reveals that they have Harold and they finally know how they’re going to find the Machine since it’s not on any network Samaritan can access. They’re going to use Root’s implant.

I have to say in this scene there was a lot of reference to the fact that Harold won’t take action against anyone, he’ll probably die quietly, which I’m hoping actually means that Harold will kick some butt next week, maybe even handle a gun. But of course Root is very protective of Harold, more so than Shaw in my opinion and tells Martine if she lays a hand on him she will kill her. Martine doesn’t take this threat seriously. She probably should have. And finally as we all cheered at home, Root kills Martine. Thank you for finally killing that bitch (excuse my language).

Of course killing Martine doesn’t really get Root out of her situation in which Samaritan has offered to release Harold and Root if the Machine reveals where it is at to Samaritan.

This scene in the show revealed the Machine’s care for the team. Harold has always thought the Machine was cold and unattached (although I think its actions have proved otherwise) and the Machine would easily replace anyone. And The Machine flat out tells him this isn’t the case and sacrifices itself to save Harold and Root.

Back with Dominic, Elias has agreed to give him information that leads to the mole in the group and it leads to Link who Dominic kills right there. Of course Elias finds this all amusing. Why? Because he lied. There was no mole. And how does it feel, Dominic, to kill your friend? Elias got his revenge for Anthony’s death. Elias doesn’t care about maintaining power, he actually never intended to live through his revenge plot. He was going to get back the guy who caused the death of his friend and that was the only goal.

As promised Samaritan lets Root and Harold go and they realize they have to find and protect the Machine before Samaritan does.  But John and Fusco are still having their problems with being held hostage by Dominic and I’m sure that will be quickly resolved in the beginning of next week’s episode.

While all of this is going down Control has been questioning the school teacher who is not a school teacher. Finally there is enough evidence for the teacher to just break her act and threaten Control. Samaritan has a attack planned for May 6th, which is interesting since it’s the day after the finale airs. Control is warned to just let it happen or else she won’t live and like it or not, Control has always done things for the protection of the country, even if it meant killing off Nathan. So she’s not about to let Samaritan kill people to usher in a new era into the world.

This may be a spoiler so don’t read if you don’t want to know, but at the Paley Center panel they mentioned about 8 actors getting the call that they would die by the finale. So far we’ve seen two that would count I think for that number, so that’s six more actors. I’m not sure who six more could be but the Machine did mobilize all its assets so we may see people from early in the season and people from previous seasons show up, and perhaps even die.

This episode was great as far as I am concerned and has set up an epic battle that I’m interested to see how it ends. Of course we’ll have to wait all summer to know that for sure. My greatest fear, which I will keep to myself, will hopefully not happen though. But I have this sinking feeling that it’s going to happen, and it will be depressing.